Are you getting too much protein?

If you are trying to gain muscle or lean body mass you might think that getting as much protein as you can get your hands on will be beneficial for the muscle gain. However, if you are not keeping track of your protein grams you might be getting too much protein and be gaining more fat than you need. Why is that, you might ask? If you are trying to gain muscle mass, your needs are going to increase from about 1g per kg of the body weight to 1.2-1.5g of protein per kg of your body weight. For example, if you weigh 190lb your protein needs if you are an active individual are 190: 2.2kg= 86kg x1g of protein= 86g of protein per day. If you want to gain muscle mass the need for protein would increase to the range of 86kg x 1.2g= 103g to 86g x 1.5g= 129 g of protein per day.

We will look at some of the more popular fast food high protein items and high protein bars and look at their nutritional content.

A Quarter Pound Hamburger from Wendy's has 200 kcalories, 19g of protein, 14g of fat, 6 g of saturated fat, and 290mg of sodium.

A Double Hamburger from Burger King has 480 kcalories, 31g of protein, 26g of fat, 11 g of saturated fat, and 580mg of sodium.

A Hamburger from McDonald's has 280 kcalories, 12g of protein, 10g of fat, 4g of saturated fat, and 590mg of sodium.

Detour Lean Muscle bars have 370 kcalories, 32 g of protein, 12g of fat, 7g of saturated fat, and 460 mg of sodium.

Met-RX Protein Plus Food bars have 310 kcalories, 32g of protein, 9g of fat, 7g of saturated fat, and 290mg of sodium.

Supreme Protein Carb Conscius bars have 200 kcalories, 15g of protein, 8g of fat, 2.5g of saturated fat, and 150mg of sodium.

CytoSport Muscle Milk bars have 300 kcalories, 25g of protein, 11 g of fat, 8g of saturated fat, and 270mg of sodium.

Pure Protein bars have 190 kcalories, 20g of protein, 6g of fat, 3g of saturated fat, and 210 mg of sodium.

Let's look at daily needs of the 190lb person in the above example trying to gain muscle mass. If our imaginary friend had only one Quater Pounder form Burger King and one Detour Lean Muscle bar he had already taken in 51g of protein (close to 50% of the daily needs for protein), 38g of fat (44% of daily needs for fat), 18g of saturated fat (64% of daily needs for saturated fat), and 1040mg of sodium (45% of the daily allowance for sodium)!

You can see how easy is to get too much, especially saturated and total fats if you don't watch for the nutritional content of the high protein bars, shakes, and fast food items. Our advice is: know your numbers and stick to them! Extra protein intake beyond your daily maximum protein amount allowance (1.5g per kg of body weight) will be stored as fat in the body. Also, taking in too much protein can result in a high level of nitrogenous (toxic) waste in your bloodstream that must be excreted through urine. If you're not taking in enough water, the stress of excreting the nitrogenous waste will be even higher on your kidneys. In addition, you may lose essential bone mass (calcium) to neutralize the acidic waste from the extra protein. As if that wasn't enough, because you are losing calcium, you also have a higher risk of kidney stones.

The bottom line: Know how much protein you need and be careful to not go overboard. Eating too much protein can result in: High body fat, high cholesterol, low bone density, kidney stones, dehydration, and over-stressed kidneys.